Farmers will have to change their priority, PAU to focus more on agro processing; Dhillon

Baldev Singh Dhillon, a recipient of the Padma Shri, began his third term as VC of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) on Monday after getting another extension till June 2021. In a free wheeling interview with Mehak Jain, he talked about the progress the university has made in the last few years and the new projects which would be taken up on priority.
Q. How satisfying has been your earlier tenure and how are your gearing up for the new challenges after getting second extension at PAU?
Board of management has reposed faith in me to take the University to greater heights. As a VC since 2011, PAU has taken numerous initiatives that catapulted PAU to greater heights. The overall development in research, teaching and extension programmes has also been developing.
What will be your priorities with regard to research at PAU?
PAU will be working on the research of water conservation. The emphasis will also be on sustainable agriculture and rational use of allied inputs.
How would you want to implement the crop rotation pattern?
PAU’s focus would be on substitute of the pattern and strengthening the diversification in favour of cultivating maize , cotton and basmati. Also, fruits like guava, pear and peach and vegetables mainly peas, chili, onion, garlic would be looked at as diversification.
How will you work toward prioritizing climate changes ?
PAU will work toward advanced research of tolerance to climate change including erratic rainfall and fluctuation in temperature. PAU has to experiment with the usage of latest tools, like biotechnology tools and tools used for production technology. With a rise in the incident of pests , diseases are also going to change so to address these challenges, research has to strengthen on production and protection of crops. For example, to test wheat with changes in weather and rising temperature, a research is already under progress at Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh and PUSA Bihar as there is high temperature. We will look into those researches.
What will be your focus in context with food processing?
PAU would focus more on agro-food processing. Efforts would be made to reduce post-harvest losses, enhance shelf life, develop new products and value addition.
How would you focus on marketing of goods?
Marketing of goods is a comprehensive part of total learning, Strengthening of agricultural marketing research and intelligence which includes selling and buying of agricultural produce and s already in process.
How do you plan to control stubble burning?
We have instructed KVKs to adopt new machinery. ICAR has funded almost 8 crores to promote crop residue management and to demonstrate machinery like happy seeders. In fact, we have started experiments on bio degradation in wheat crops, from this year. We have already begun with paddy.
What is the prime focus of PAU with regard to creating awareness in the society?
Creating awareness in the society for efficient use of natural resources like water and agricultural soil. This would also include need-based pesticides and fertilizers used.
With agrarian crisis growing, what is your message to farmers?
I would encourage each and every farmer to work in allied profession as land holding is shrinking. Profit in crop cultivation has decreased. They should opt for alternate farming like dairy, piggery, poultry, bee keeping and nurturing mushroom should also be seen as an alternative profession.
What are your plans to strengthen faculty?
To focus on quality teaching , competitive exams through specialized trainings abroad in the areas of cutting edge technologies. There would be more stress on sabbatical leaves for upgrading faculty competence. I would also encourage the faculty and students pursue for post doctoral fellowships in India and abroad.
What are your plans for giving better exposure to students?
The students would be encouraged to go for internships or trainings in national and international laboratories. At the campus facilities for practicals have already been provided. To attract meritorious students more fellowships will be introduced in masters and doctoral programs
What is your best achievement so far?
I would consider PAU achievement as collaborative team work . To name a few, PAU has won Sardar Patel outstanding ICAR institution award in 2017 . Besides this, BT cotton variety, high zinc wheat variety , less seed kinnow, short duration paddy variety were major achievements. It did outstanding work in management of cotton white fly and paddy straw.